San Miguel de Allende Gringa Reports: No Crime Here

You just have to wonder. How is it that people can become so delusional that nothing seeps past the intact fantasy? I've been writing much of this in this year's blogging. Gringolandians move to places like San Miguel de Allende, set about transforming it into their American Imperialistic Image, then report that it is a "literal heaven on earth."

Read this:

"Re: San Miguel de Allende Safety
Apr 06, 2010, 9:49 AM

no problem with safety here. I've been here 11 years, heaven on
earth..! the drug things happen 99% near borders and don't effect us in
san miguel.but if something happens, it's reported . but nothing really
except yearly purse snatchings around xmas.. It is gorgeous and totally
safe.

jackiesan
sanmigueldeal..."

Here she's been in the city for 11 years and declares it, "heaven on earth" and "totally safe."

Perhaps she's missed the Mexican reported news since the vast majority are so ignorant of no more of word or two of Spanish.

Here are the facts as reported in the Mexican and American news media:

Crimes and misdemeanors: Staying safe in San Miguel
(click on this title)

1.) What Will It Take?

2.) San Miguel de Allende Shoot Out

3.) I Wouldn't Last a Day Here

4.) San Miguel Muggings

5.) Safety Crisis

6.) SMA: Robbery and Shot to Death!

Guanajuato, Mexico -- Spanish Classes or Not

I thought as I was falling asleep last night that I should write a blog on why I am not too keen on taking classes in Spanish. In a word, useless.

What will you get when you enroll in a Spanish class at your local Junior College? A text book, a workbook, maybe some tapes or CD's, and a heck of a lot of boredom.

As I have said before, did you learn to speak your native language in a classroom? Did you reach fluency in your native tongue by reading a text book or sitting in a classroom?

Let's face it, the vast majority of those who want to learn a language really want to acquire speech in the new language. They want to be able to carry on a conversation in a second tongue. Will a classroom bring you any closer to that goal?

Although there is a place for a classroom to perfect speech, in the beginning stages it will be counterproductive. It won't work. It can't work.

Even a course with a so-called "conversation class" is counterproductive as well.

Additionally, classroom conversational instruction should be avoided because the students mostly hear the speech of fellow students that is incorrect and poorly pronounced. In some conversational classes 95% of the input is from fellow students rather than from the native speaker. -- Harris Winitz, Ph.D. Development, K.C., Mo.

That is the primary reason I push the home study courses I do. They are like having a native speaker in your home. You can come close to having a true immersion experience at a lower cost than hiring a private native speaker coming into your home.

I used and continue to use the LEARNING SPANISH LIKE CRAZY course to keep my ear sharp. This course covers almost everything including the subjunctive mood. I highly recommend this course. It is available in its entirety for download and less than $100.00.

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The Most Hated Gringo in the World -- 33

COME TO MEXICO AND NOT HAVE TO SEE MEXICANS

Gringolandia Candidates Questions & Answers

1) Gringo at SMA's bogus tour of homes which is really a Real Estate Scam to sell you something you cannot afford:

"Do I have to see or deal with any Mexicans if I buy the house you are trying to trick me into buying?"

Slick Real Estate Shyster: "Are you kidding? The only Mexicans you'll ever have to deal with are those who pay slave wages to to wait on you hand and foot."

2) Gringo asks while signing real estate contract and handing over a suitcase full of cash: "Do they love us here?"

Estate Scammer Shyster: "Are you kidding? They tell their children that their sole purpose in life is to wait on the Gringo hand and foot and if they don't like it, they are welcome to live elsewhere than SMA."

3) Gringo who just signed his or her life away in the Mexican real estate transaction: "Will there be mosquitoes there?"

Real Estate Scammer Shyster says now that he has mucho American Dollars: "Oh, they are as big as the SUV's you intend on driving down here and will devour your children as soon as you open a window in your new SMA home."

4) Gringo calls Real Estate Scammer Shyster while standing in new home: "Where are all the light fixtures, doors, window frames, the stove and refrigerator, and floor tiles?

Real Estate Scammer Shyster: "Oh, I took those for my cousin Rickie. But I can sell you something different for cheap if you like. And, it's legal so don't bother getting an abogado."

5) Gringo talking to Estate Scammer Shyster standing over wife's body who died of a heart attack in her new SMA home that is just an empty shell: "How could you do this to us?"

Real Estate Scammer Shyster after hysterical laughing fit: "What's wrong with you, you Stupid Gabacho? It was all in the contract you signed willing and ready."

6) Gringo now telling paramedics and Mexican police why his wife is dead on the floor: "But, the contract was all in Spanish and I don't read or speak a word of Spanish."

Real Estate Scammer Shyster: "¡Qué tonto!"

Guanajuato, Mexico - ¡Se Habla español, solo!

If the Great Gabacho Genie would grant me one wish it would be this:

I WOULD HAVE ALL GRINOS REMOVED FROM THE FACE OF MEXICO (AND ALL SPANISH SPEAKING COUNTRIES) UNLESS THEY HAD, AT A BARE MINIMUM, AN EIGHT-YEAR-OLD'S SPANISH SPEAKING, READING, WRITING FLUENCY LEVEL.

If you want to know what can get my goat faster than anything is the Cultural Imperialist Arrogance of a Gabacho making the claim that he or she knows Mexico so well by virtue of the fact she or he has visited Mexico (a tourist, mind you) since 1991 making he or she an expert in Mexico Cultural.

I know these authors who have written books on expatriation issues to Mexico. A woman, Mary Rassmussen, from Minnesota, writes of one of the books of these authors:

If you are part of the "I hate America crowd", this book is for you.

She goes on to say:

He is so obviously biased against America and Americans, I figure this point of view must affect everything he writes about, and therefore I don't trust he has any objectivity.

As for the proof of her arguement that the authors are so obviously biased is:

I have travelled to Mexico many times since 1991, and I have seen an American behave badly once.

This is in reference, I can only assume, to the chapter of one of the author's books that speaks to the horror that has been wrought upon San Miguel de Allende.

To read an excellent article by Sheila Croucher a professor of political science at Miami University in Ohio which speaks to the Gringo disaster Americans wreak upon Mexico click here.

Mary Rassmussen's judgement call is that:

1. Anyone who has bought this book is in the "I HATE AMERICA CROWD."

2. Anyone who is thinking of buying this book in the "I HATE AMERICA CROWD."

3. Anyone who will at anytime in the future buy this book in in the "I HATE AMERICA CROWD."

The things written in THE PLAIN TRUTH ABOUT LIVING IN MEXICO are mild and affectionate compared to Professor Croucher's article.

And for a "slap you in the face" shocking yet honest review of what Americans do when moving to Mexico click here for an article by Bill Davies and Karen Harding, long time residents of San Miguel de Allende--GRINGOLANDIA CAPITAL OF THE WORLD..

Even more deplorable is how Amazon.com allows such comments on their so-called "Reader's Reviews."

Under some Pollyana delusion that all of their "readers" must be granted the opportunity to write "a review" people who have never read the book, maybe partially insane, or whatever, can write the most vile and contemptous things about authors. All authors get it from the least of us to the greatest and yet, Amazon.com feeds into a device (a forum structure) that more often than not brings out the very worst in people.

Yahoo had to learn that the hard way. They used to let unfettered comments flow from Americans with an internet connection to make comments on the news. It devolved into anarchy and Yahoo finally took off this nonsense!

If you are interested in sharing your feelings with Amazon.com on this issue you can do so by clicking here.

The point is that as long as the American, and it mostly Americans, come to Mexico for retirement and refuse to become fluent in Spanish, then culture is forever beyong their grasp. Language, learning Spanish, is the portal to the culture and apart from that portal, you can never in a million years begine to know culture no matter how many times you've visited Mexico.

And that, dear Mary Rassmussen, from Minnesota, is written about you!